


I wanna shout out

by prinz_charlie



Category: Jagged Little Pill - Morissette & Ballard/Morissette/Cody
Genre: Gen, One-Shot, non-binary!jo, this was so much fun to write shkfjsd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:00:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23406409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prinz_charlie/pseuds/prinz_charlie
Summary: Jo finally tells their mother what they're going to be doing after graduating from high school.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	I wanna shout out

**Author's Note:**

> tw: misgendering/deadnaming

Graduation day. Finally. The whole school was assembled, every graduate wearing matching robes, all of them excitedly anticipating the speech that would set them free. Free from school so they could finally do whatever they wanted to do. Some went to colleges like Yale or Harvard, others simply decided to go to a community college, and others were planning to work or start their own business.

Except for Jo.

Jo was sitting there, alone, lost in a mass of students, some of them they thought they had never even seen before and was still clueless. They were practically on pins and needles, dreading the end of the ceremony. When their mother had repeatedly asked them about what college they would attend, and Jo had continuously made a “secret” out of it, Angie had forced them to tell her after graduation, because “I just can’t wait any longer, Joanne, I want to know where my daughter will go.”

Jo would like to know where they would go as well. After halfheartedly applying to a few colleges to maybe study Psychology – which they admitted was interesting but didn’t care enough about to pursue as a career – they had only gotten back declinations. Declination after declination. It surprised even Jo themself that they had managed to keep everything from Angie for such a long time. On the other hand, they had perfected their skills of hiding and pretending over the years of doing exactly that and then eventually lying, when they couldn’t stand Angie anymore and needed excuses to get away from her. And now the moment they would have to tell Angie that they didn’t have the flying fuck of a clue of what they’d do after graduation was fast approaching. The ceremony didn’t last nearly as long as they would’ve liked it to last. From getting their diploma to walking off the stage to hugging Frankie and Phoenix goodbye and kissing Bella, happy that they had finally made it, everything felt so surreal. In the next moment, they found themself sitting opposite their mother at some fancy restaurant Angie had insisted they'd eat at, waiting for the waiter to bring their food.

“You’ll only graduate from high school once, Joanne, and while we may not get along sometimes…”

“All the time”, Jo corrected in their thoughts.

“… I want to celebrate this.” Angie folded her hands in front of her on the table, shifting uncomfortably. She was wearing a close-fitting dress, a blazer over it. In Jo’s opinion, it made her look even more ridiculous than she usually did. Of course, they hadn't been able to stop themself from making a sarcastic comment when they left the house that had earned them nothing more than a sour look from their mother.

“So, Joanne…”

Jo flinched a little, crossing their arms in front of their chest. They were wearing a hoodie over a shirt and a black beanie with an orange eagle on its side, which they tried to hide in now. “Come to the point, please”, they interrupted.

Angie furrowed a brow, clearing her throat and shaking her head a little. “Ok, good”, she sighed, clearly annoyed by their child. “Will you finally tell me what college you got into? Even though, in the light of your certificate, it’s hard to believe that a college would even accept you. Disappointing…”

Jo swallowed hard. “It wasn’t bad, I only got _one_ D and the rest is all Cs and Bs”, they said uptight. “And if you think I’m a disappointment that’s really just a reflection of your parenting skills.”

“Joanne”, Angie warned them.

“God, why did you even force me into this?”, Jo muttered under their breath, looking around in the hope to find a waiter carrying a salad their way.

Angie kicked Jo’s leg under the table shooting them a deadly look. “Don’t ruin this for me, Joanne…”

“Oh, so you’re just doing this for yourself, that explains a lot”, Jo said feigning a sudden awareness, putting their hand on their chest in exasperated shock.

“One salad and a plate of shrimps”, a waiter announced, coming to a halt at their table, putting down the salad in front of Jo. He placed the shrimps in front of Angie, smiling politely. “Enjoy your meal.”

Angie thanked the waiter, smiling like she never did when she was with Jo. The smile fell as soon as the waiter was gone. “Now tell me where you’re going to college and let’s get this thing over with.” If it hadn’t been clear before that Angie was only doing this for herself to prove to herself that she was a good mother and was able to just spend time with her child like anyone else, pretending to be perfect, above all because she was a single mother, it definitely was now.

“Good, you want to know where I’m going?”, Jo asked, getting tired of keeping it a secret. Their heartbeat increased a little as the words spilled from their lips. “Well, there you go: I don’t have the flying fuck of a clue. I don’t know. I don’t want to go to college, the only thing I know is that I want to get away from you. That I just want to go and get away from this bullshit.” Gasping for air they satisfied watched as Angie’s expression changed to the one of pure shock. Her eyes widened, her mouth fell open and in the corner of their eyes, Jo noticed her hands starting to shake.

“You are telling me that you’re going to… live on the street?”, Angie asked, her fork with the first shrimp on it sinking down on the plate again. "Or even worse, will stay here?" 

Jo shrugged, not even flinching at Angie's hurting words anymore. “I don’t know, maybe. Maybe I’ll sell crack someday and be an addict. Maybe you’ll read about me in the newspaper because I'll be the person who cured cancer. I don’t fucking know. I only know that I’m capable of so much more than you think.” And with that, they shoved a fork of salad into their mouth, took a big sip from their coke and stood up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be gone.”

Angie stared at them aghast, her mouth closing and opening like a fish without a tone coming out. “What if I want to know where you are?”, Angie asked stuttering, clearly overran by Jo’s speech. “And sit down, we don’t want people staring at us.”

“Oh no, _you_ don’t want people staring at _you_. _I_ couldn’t care less”, Jo announced grinning proudly at their so clearly struggling mother.

“You're going to struggle so much. You won't have any money", Angie said with her last hope of getting Jo to sit down again. "Do you really think you could survive on your own?”

Jo turned around and raised their right hand. “I don’t know, and I don’t care", they said, an oddly freeing feeling settling in their chest. "If you need me, I’ll be somewhere where people accept me.” And with that, a smug smile and a raised middle finger they left the restaurant, ignoring the looks and gasps, feeling somewhat freed for the first time in ages. They walked home, grinning somewhat proudly to themselves, even though their heart was still beating like crazy, pulled the already packed backpack out from under their bed and threw it into their car.

And then they stepped on the gas and drove. Free like an eagle. Drove, for the sake of driving. For the sake of the unknown. For the sake of being free.

**Author's Note:**

> this was so much fun to write skdfhlsdjf hope you liked it, thank you so much for reading, thanks to the anon on tumblr who prompted this (ily anon) and i'll hopefully read you next time! love yall 
> 
> hmu on tumblr (@haveuseenmylife) if you want to :D


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